Introduction

Tennessee Timeline
~ 1812-1835 ~

First Seminole (Florida) War :
   1818-1819
         In 1817, U.S.A. Major General Andrew Jackson was recalled to service to recapture runaway black slaves living among Seminole and to pursue Seminole forces which had been conducting raids into Georgia. Jackson and his 3,000 soldiers destroyed several native villages and had two captured British citizens executed on charges of inciting the Indians and runaways. General Jackson captured the Spanish fort of Pensacola in May 1818 and there deposed the current government.

Jackson resigned his command and served as Commissioner of the United States to Florida, 10 March 1821 to 12 November 1821. He was in effect, the pre-territorial governor of Florida.

         The Adams-Onís Treaty (Florida Treaty) signed in Washington on February 22, 1819, ratified by Spain October 24, 1820, and entered into force February 22, 1821. Here the United States purchases Spanish Florida for $5,000,000 and establishes the western boundary between Spanish Texas and the Louisiana Purchase:
       “The Boundary Line between the two Countries, West of the Mississippi, shall begin on the Gulf of Mexico, at the mouth of the River Sabine in the Sea, continuing North, along the Western Bank of that River, to the 32d degree of Latitude; thence by a Line due North to the degree of Latitude, where it strikes the Rio Roxo ... ” (Rio Rojo or Red River).
       On 27 September 1821, representatives of the Spanish crown recognized Mexican independence. They signed the Treaty of Córdoba.

Table of Contents & Tennessee Timeline
~ 1835 into the 1840s ~

“The Second Seminole War ... resulted from the efforts of the United States to remove the Seminole Indians from Florida. The 1832 treaty of Payne’s Landing had provided for a delegation of Indians to journey to the West and decide on the acceptability of the land set apart for them. The Seminoles agreed to leave Florida for the West within 3 years of giving their approval.

“Disputes arose, however, when the government insisted that the agreement to emigrate was fulfilled when the delegation approved the new lands, and the Seminoles asserted that the treaty would not take effect until they expressed satisfaction with their delegates’ report.

“The federal government ordered the Seminole Indians to gather on January 8, 1836, for removal---resistance would be met with force. The ensuing clash plunged both sides into seven years of hardship. Both free blacks and slaves fought with the Seminoles. The U.S. Army enlisted volunteers and mercenaries from other tribes. By 1843 the Army had forced all but a few hundred of the Indians to emigrate, in small groups, west of the Mississippi.”

Source: National Archives and Records Administration

         The Texas Revolution and potential Indian problems caused some concern that the unmarked boundary between Mexican Texas and American Louisiana might be breached. With the approval of Congress, USA Major General Edmund Pendleton Gaines called upon the governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee to provide volunteers for the defense United States and to guard the border at the Sabine River.
       Tennessee’s Governor Newton Cannon ordered into service many militia companies which were to rendezvous at Fayetteville in Lincoln County or Athens in McMinn County.
       Because of the Texans’ capture of Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna, the need for so many volunteers on the western front greatly deminished. Many militia companies were dismissed after the initial muster.

         Treaty of New Echota, Treaty of Removal, or the Trail of Tears Treaty ... 29 December 1835

“The New Echota Treaty of May 1836 fixed the time after which Cherokee Indians who refused to voluntarily leave their land in Alabama and Georgia would be removed by force. In 1838 the War Department issued orders for General Winfield Scott to remove immediately the remaining 2,000 Cherokees to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). The Army forced the Indians into stockade camps before starting out on the 1,800 mile march west. They arrived in Indian Territory in the spring of 1839. Scott was ordered to take command of troops already in Cherokee country, including infantry, cavalry, and artillery. He also had the authority to call on the governors of the adjoining States for as many as 4,000 militia and volunteers.

“... the Cherokee disturbances and removal, 1836-1839 ... these operations are generally called the Cherokee War.”

Source: National Archives and Records Administration

Tennessee Timeline
~ in the 1840s ~

         James K. Polk was the last of the Jacksonian Democrats to sit in the White House. As a young lawyer he entered politics, served in the Tennessee legislature, and became a friend of Andrew Jackson. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1825-1839) and served as speaker between 1835 and 1839. He then served as governor of Tennessee (1839-41).
       Polk entered the 1844 presidential campaign with little name recognition but he publicly asserted that Texas should be “re-annexed” and all of Oregon “re-occupied.” To the Democrats, Polk was the candidate who stood for expansion.
       During his term of office, Polk pressured Mexico into war. The result of that war put the American southwest into the hands of the United States.